Legoland, Toronto Island, the ROM and more in Toronto

The Little Guy and I spent a good weekend in Toronto, but one that left me wondering just how computer literate I really am.

First, the activities. We met a fellow ex-Korea ESL teacher and his children at Legoland in Vaughan. I’ll describe the pics, then the day.

A miniature of the ROM – ironic that we finished the weekend at the real thing.

Building a Lego camera takes serious concentration.

Peddling for height on the Lord of the Rings ride.

My son loved Legoland as did the other kids. I thought it was as good as it could be. We entered ($18 per child, $22 per adult) and learned how blocks were made, then really enjoyed a dark ride where we could use laser guns to protect various Lego people. Then, we were in the common room which contained many giant bowls of blocks, a workshop room that offered assistance in building things, a few ramps for Lego cars, a jungle gym (that the eldest child was too tall to be allowed in), an LOTR ride and a 4-D movie theatre. I guess my main concern is that Lego is all about building things and blocks were provided in abundance but it just felt like, “Come in for a Lego adventure! Now sit still and concentrate!” Loud adventure and contemplative concentration just don’t mesh all that well in my opinion. The ramps, which looked like they were intended for cars were just used to roll wheels which were connected to nothing.

Again, perhaps I am being too much a middle-aged adult because the kids had fun, but the ‘serious’ activities were underutilized. The LOTR ride seemed fun but was a weak fit with the general Lego theme.

It was a great place to be because of the miserable weather that day, that’s for sure!

On Sunday, we went to Toronto Island and I want to go again, soon.

Does Parks, Forests and Recreation want us to have fun or to tramp down the goose poop that was everywhere?

There was an ‘Island Girl’ run going on that featured Hawaiian and steel-drum music along the edges of the course.

It was raining on Toronto Island -OK, probably everywhere – and that dampened our spirits but we were having fun. We wanted to rent bikes but were concerned about interfering with the race. the TVOKids Word on the Street event took us completely by surprise. Why did I not think to research our destinations to see if anything special were happening? The information was not pushed to us but why didn’t we think to look ahead? Next time.

Thanks, Sean. We had a great time, too. I held off on posting pics of your children here.

Marcus, I really like the LOTR and Hobbit Lego sets – and chuckle at the suggested age ranges (7-12, for example) as, more than any other set, I suspect the main users are adults. It’s the ‘sort of’ that gets me. Still, it looked fun for my son.